In 2021, I was promoted to manage our sink product portfolio, which includes sinks, waste disposers, and accessories representing about 70% of total company sales. I completed the North American 5 year product strategy as part of strategic global initiatives requiring comprehensive competitive benchmarking, gap analyses and market research for global portfolio alignment. I am leading the North American team as part of the largest sink launch ever for Franke in North America. I'm also working closely with our global product management team on development and research related to the first new stainless steel sink family in North America in 4 years as part of the new 5 year global product strategy.

In 2019, I was promoted to product manager of faucets for North America and became the first person in product management to work remotely. As product manager, I was responsible for faucets, water filtration, water treatment and related accessories, which was about 30% of the total company sales. I partnered with local and global management to transition our business from local silos to part of a connected, global organization. I executed the strategy to leave the retail sales channel and enter the traditional plumbing wholesale channel. I restructured the portfolio from a cost-based pricing approach to a market-based pricing approach to improve profitability. I conducted competitive benchmarking, gap analyses and market research studies for global portfolio alignment and global complexity reduction initiatives. I also developed a new go-to-market strategy to better align faucets with our sink product lines which was recognized globally and supported with a global marketing campaign.

In 2017 my role expanded the support our entire US division. I was primarily responsible for implementation of all new kitchen products; faucets, sinks, waste disposers, filtration and accessories. I worked directly with product managers, marketing, operations, sales and our suppliers to ensure new products are launched on time. I was also responsible for all product certification in the US and was also designated as the person most knowledgeable for all Franke US product to assist our corporate legal team with product inquiries and litigation support.

In January of 2014, our corporate office moved from Hatfield PA to Smyrna TN. The entire product management team and customer service team were replaced, except for me and the customer service manager. I was promoted and given more direct responsibility in product management. I was also given additional resources to help support the expanded duties - 2 part time engineering interns. During the transition, I was responsible to keep all ongoing projects moving until the new product management team was hired and up to speed. I helped train all the new product managers, and customer service members on new and existing product. I worked closely with the new product managers as we turned over about 75% of the sink products as well as replacing our entire faucet line over the next 3 years. We developed and implemented new processes to follow, and setup relationships with several new suppliers.

I was promoted to this position to primarily provide technical support to the product managers in the luxury products group, but I also helped with project management as well. I was also responsible to manage all product certification and coordinate directly with our suppliers on product specification, verification and new product launches as well as any quality issues that might arise.

In this role I was able to lead several product improvement initiatives drawing on my product development skills. The highlight improvement was cutting the #1 quality issue in the division in half, saving the company $40k/month. I was also primarily responsible for developing the quality management system for the entire facility in preparation for ISO 9001:2008 certification. I also lead the internal auditing of the facility leading up to the audit and was the primary contact for all external facility audits.

This was my first role in management. I supervised 3 quality technicians setting their work schedules. I streamlined several work processes related to product audits and data aquisition as well as inspection processes to increase product quality and give the quality technicians more responsibility and accountability in the production area.

In this role, I was involved in more industrial focused work, instead of product focused, but it was a great way to expand my understanding of how all aspects of manufacturing work together and how product design can greatly impact operational success. During this time I was involved in troubleshooting equipment, streamlining work cell and equipment layouts, overseeing and planning installation of new equipment, developing work inductions and learning lean manufacturing concepts through participation in Kaizen events

This position really set a strong foundation for me in the fundamentals of product engineering and project management from some great mentors in a world class organization. I led several product launches, product improvement projects and supply chain initiatives in addition to supporting operations, quality, tooling and procurement departments.